1. Field of the Invention
The present invention concerns a shockwave system and a method for operation of such a shockwave system.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In most medical measures that are conducted on a patient, the patient is exposed to a physical or mental strain. Patients are normally living people and animals. The mental and physical strain of the patient is dependent on many factors and can individually be very different. For example, patients exhibit different physical and mental requirements or cultural differences or have different prior knowledge or experiences with regard to medical measures.
Mental and physical strains of the patient, moreover, have interactions with one another. The physiological stress generated in a patient due to increasing mental discomfort frequently can result in a medical measure lasting longer than planned or even be interrupted, and/or the patient suffering increased side effects after the treatment, etc.
In particular when a therapeutic treatment involving the application of shockwaves to a patient for pain alleviation or calculus disintegration is implemented using a lithotripsy system, the effects of the patient stress on the treatment are particularly pronounced. This has various causes: the smallest movements of the patient require a repositioning of the components of the lithotripsy system, thus a re-alignment of the focal point of the ultrasound shockwave on the treatment target. If the patient feels pains during the treatment, he or she possibly will interrupt the treatment on his or her own or make the aforementioned repositioning necessary due to increased agitation. A repositioning, which is normally implemented with x-rays, in turn leads to increased radiation exposure of the patient. Often under such circumstances, the patient is given an increased medicinal administration of analgesics or narcotics in order to better immobilize the patient.
It is particularly disadvantageous when, for example, a movement caused by agitation of the patient is not noticed by the individual conducting the shockwave therapy. The coupling of the shockwave head to the patient is degraded and the focal point wanders unnoticed from the target. This results in a higher applied energy of the shockwaves or a longer treatment duration, and can even lead to injury of the patient by radiation of ultrasonic shockwaves at unwanted locations, namely by missing the target.
As noted above, in order to minimize the unwanted effects described above of mental and physical stress on the part of the patient, is known to immobilize the patient by adequate medication in the form of anesthetics or analgesics, but this has known risks and side effects. Furthermore, it is known to assist in the pacification of the patient by a detailed communication between the individual conducting the treatment (for example the doctor) and the patient. This places an additional burden on the doctor and; moreover, the success of this approach strongly depends on the sympathy between doctor and patient.